My Husband

The narrative is told from the first-person point of view of Ariane, the wife who remains unnamed till the very end of the book. Ariane’s ambiguous perspective immediately establishes her as an unreliable narrator, a classic trope of the thriller genre. One way in which Maud Ventura makes Ariane’s version of events appear unreliable is by highlighting her exaggerated responses to seemingly ordinary events. For instance, when her husband tells Ariane that they need to talk, Ariane assumes this implies a marriage-ending discussion, and immediately falls into despair. 

Ariane’s position as an unreliable narrative is also cemented by her often boundary-crossing behavior, such as when she is in the classroom. Ariane considers deliberately setting her students an essay on the scents they like so she can use the knowledge to choose a sensuous perfume for herself. Her manipulation of her students suggests that Ariane tends to use questionable methods to gain power over her husband, or to attract his attention. 

The gap between Ariane’s first-person telling and the underlying truth creates the mystery of the novel, deepening the suspense of the plot. After the Prologue, the narrative flashes back to the week preceding the fateful Sunday when her husband tells Ariane they need to talk, dividing the novel into two timelines. Through the flashbacks, Ariane examines all of her own actions to discover what incited her husband to initiate the talk. In the process, the reader also learns more about Ariane’s psyche, her world, and even her unnamed husband. Thus, the flashback device serves as an important narrative tool to build the novel’s world and its elements of thrill and psychological suspense.

While the novel has been described as a psychological thriller, it also functions as a dark satire on contemporary relationships and Appearances Versus Reality. Ariane is preoccupied with making things look immaculate, almost as if she is curating her real life like a social media feed for her husband’s gaze. For instance, Ariane notes that she wants her house to appear picture-book perfect for her husband on his return home, like “a gift shop glowing in the darkness” (12). She also wants to be seen reading a particular book, so picks out Marguerite Duras’s The Lover from her home library. Ariane’s preoccupation with appearances is partly a reflection of her innate perfectionism, and partly a response to society’s premium on aesthetics.

The Lover also invokes the theme of The Thin Line Between Love and Obsession. Ariane deeply identifies with the novel’s unnamed teenaged narrator, who embarks on a passionate affair with an older man. Ariane wants to continually experience a similarly intense love, but does not realize that a long-term relationship and a shorter affair are different—in The Lover, the affair only lasts for a brief while. Ariane’s refusal to see the difference between her situation and that of Duras’s protagonist shows that she has unhealthy expectations for romantic love. 

While Ariane’s deep love for her husband is a reflection of her tendency to romanticize reality, it also speaks to her overreliance on the idea of marriage to complete her identity. In the opening section, Ariane notes that she does not want to reveal her husband’s name, as his name does not matter—what is more important is that he is her husband and “he belongs to [her]” (6). She also describes herself as shaking with pride every time she says the phrase, “my husband” (6) to people, such as the principal of the school. This behavior indicates that Ariane is also in love with the social capital marriage brings her, suggesting she feels more worthy as a woman who has a husband.

While Ariane’s outsized admiration of her husband reflects her feelings for him, the novel also satirizes Ariane for her tendency to see every action of her husband as extraordinary. Ariane’s heart “skip[s] a beat” (11) when she sees how well-stocked her husband keeps the fridge and pantry. Ariane’s tendency to over-value her husband’s contributions to their domestic life will also run parallel in the novel to her inability or unwillingness to fully confront all of the ways in which he is a cold and emotionally abusive spouse.

Ariane’s personal beliefs about love and marriage also explore The Oppressive Nature of Gendered Expectations. The narrative recurrently shows that Ariane is unique in her own capacity, yet all her attention is devoted to her husband. While Ariane has a sharp intellect and her own career, she lacks a strong sense of self apart from her role as her husband’s wife. Ariane focuses most of her attention on appearing desirable to her husband and saving a marriage that does not need saving. Ariane’s emotional state illustrates how she has internalized gendered expectations so thoroughly that she has forgotten how to derive pleasure from her own self. Ironically, Ariane has ticked every box to domestic bliss, yet she continues to feel empty.